Page 73 of Guarding Salvation

I’ll always be sorry that I never said this in person, but I’m not sure I could have.

Be happy, my son, know that my pride in you and my love for you are infinite.

Love always,

Dad

Bram sat back in shock, the page falling from his grasp as the enormity of the revelations hit him. The secrets his father and mother had kept, the pride and love his father had for him. For years he’d thought he was the black sheep, the disappointment, and yet it was his father who’d sent him salvation.

His father who’d given him the life he hadn’t known he wanted or needed, and he was proud of the man he was, despite his knowledge of what he’d done. To kill was one thing but to kill with your bare fists was raw and brutal, yet he didn’t see him like that. He’d thought he was a good son, a fine man.

Was he right? Was there good in him, a man worthy of the love of a woman like Aoife? For the first time in his life, he was beginning to think maybe he was worthy.

Folding the letter and placing it back in the envelope, Bram tucked it in his jacket and left the study, switching off the light as he went.

At the door to his bedroom, he stood in the light and watched the woman he loved sleep, her body in the middle of the huge bed curled into a ball. Bram shed his clothes and climbed in beside her, hauling her body into his arms and holding her as she snuggled back against him.

“You okay?”

Her hand rubbed his arm in a comforting gesture, her voice barely a whisper in the darkness. “I am now.”

“I love you, Bram.”

“I love you too, Aoife. You’re the only thing that matters to me. Not my job, not this place, nothing.”

He kissed her shoulder, only pulling back as she rolled to look at him. “What do you mean by that?”

“If you want me to walk away from Shadow to be with you, I’ll do it. If you want to be a lady of the manor then we’ll do that with Lana and Rory. Whatever you need to be happy I’ll do, Aoife, because you’re all that matters to me.”

Her fingers traced the seam of his lips, and he nipped the pads of her fingers.

“I want to have a normal life. I want to go back to school to work and get my nursing degree, which I can do in Hereford. Birmingham University is close and Worcester even closer. You could continue working for Shadow and we can live in the village. I know you don’t think it but what you do is necessary, and you’re good at it. Shadow needs you and I think we need them too.”

Bram felt his heart race. Was he really getting everything he wanted handed to him on a plate? “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Snow and Titan have become friends and I love the village life where we have people who care about us.”

“I guess Shadow is part of my family. We may be slightly dysfunctional but when I needed them, they didn’t hesitate.”

Bram knew there’d be lots more to figure out, but for now, he knew where they were going and that they’d do it together—them against the world.

Epilogue

“Where are we going, Bram?”

Her man had a hold of her hand as he led her blindfolded out of their home into the warm spring sunshine. “I told you it’s a surprise.”

Aoife shook her head in mock irritation, but the truth was she trusted him and if he said she’d like it she knew she would. The last six months had been blissful, and she kept waiting for the bubble to burst, for her life to fall back into the pattern of destruction it was before she’d found this place and these people.

They were now living in a two-bedroom house in the village, although Bram kept his quarters at the facility, which they’d use sometimes too if things were on high alert or they just wanted to spend some time with their friends there. She was back working at the pub and Bram was doing his thing with Shadow.

She had everything she’d never known she missed. A man who adored her, friends like Snow, Lotus, and Duchess and surrogate brothers in the shape of the Shadow Elite men. In the autumn, she’d start her nursing degree and have almost everything she’d ever dreamed of.

The rest would come in time. Marriage and kids were all on the agenda for the future and something she and Bram talked about in the wee hours when it was just the two of them. Her life, the one she’d run from, was like a bad dream and, with the help of a counsellor, she was learning to accept the things she’d been through and deal with them.

Feeling the air on her cheeks, she tilted her head up to feel the waning sun on her face. She’d never grow weary of this place. It soothed her soul in a way no other place except perhaps the castle did.

“Watch your step.”